For eight seasons, Mohamed Salah has consistently been Liverpool’s top performer. He hasn’t carried the team on his own, but he’s been the constant, and he has the trophy haul and goal return to justify talk that he’s one of the club’s three best players of all time.
To find himself benched as he was for three games last week, then, proved too much for the superstar’s ego to take. Particularly when, while his form this season hasn’t been his best, he hasn’t been the only Liverpool player who has failed
to live up to expectations.
Following his decision to go public with his discontent following Saturday’s 3-3 draw against Leeds that saw the Reds collapse in comic-tragic fashion to drop more points, his relationship with the club and manager Arne Slot has become an unavoidable talking point.
“It’s a situation that needs to be resolved between Salah and the club,” left back Andy Robertson reflected. “I’ve played with him for so long and I’d like to continue playing with him, that’s what I want, but obviously we’ll have to see what happens over the next few weeks.
“But firstly, he would probably want the season to have gone better for the club and for him. I know he puts a huge amount of pressure on himself to perform all the time, and last season he took it to a whole new level in terms of, at times, he carried this whole team.
“So I think we’ve all been below the standards of last season, Mo included. He’d be first to admit it. And then obviously finds himself out of the team, which is probably a bit of a unique situation for him. It’s obviously something that he’s not used to experiencing.
“But he was positive yesterday in terms of wishing us all well, sending us on our way [to the Inter Milan match on Tuesday]. I’m sure he would like to be involved, but the support for the lads was still there, and I think as a teammate that’s really all you can ask for.”
Liverpool managed to win against Inter and, on balance, likely deserved that result against a tough opponent on the road. It’s noteworthy, perhaps, that they did it with a new formation—a two-forward look that would seem to suit a slightly older Salah with less in his legs.
Whether that offers a framework that would allow Salah to return and contribute the rest of the way this season as one of three players for two slots alongside Hugo Ekitike and Alexander Isak—the latter of whom has struggled at least as much as Salah—is anyone’s guess.
Hopefully, though, whatever the future holds for club and player, there’s a path to things returning to a more positive place, both regarding performances and results on one hand and the basic human relationships on the other. Anything else would be a sad disappointment.
